Cedric glanced back at him.
“I’d like to sleep through the night again,” Paul told him. “I can do better. I can prove myself.”
Fine. Paul wanted his take? Here you go. “Morgan Fletcher is a smart, sadistic prick. Chloe didn’t ever talk to me much about him, but I got the impression she thought he’d killed before.”
“Oh, you got that impression, huh?”
Cedric counted to ten. Don’t let him piss you off. “I hope you find him before Joel does.”
“And why is that?”
Cedric marched into the cemetery. He had a crime scene to supervise. But…
I hope you find him first because if Joel gets his hands on Morgan Fletcher…if Morgan is responsible for Chloe being sealed in that vault…
Cedric had no doubt that Joel would kill Chloe’s ex.
Chapter Twenty
“You didn’t think it was important that I know my sister had been abducted?” Reese’s entire body was bow-tight with tension. “She was buried alive and you didn’t tell me?” His voice rose to an alarming level.
Joel rolled back his shoulders. “There wasn’t anything you could do.”
Marie lunged for him.
Reese grabbed her and hauled her back against his side. “You can’t cut him up until I’m done yelling at the bastard!”
Chloe rubbed her left temple as she sat on the couch. The night had been killer so far, and she just wanted to collapse. She also wanted her brother and Marie to not attack Joel. “He’s right, Reese. There was very little you could do.”
He let Marie go and hurried to her side. He glowered down at her. “You were in a vault?”
“Yes, but don’t worry. I’m quite fine now. The people at the hospital said I was perfectly—”
“That’s not exactly what they said, Chloe,” Joel rumbled right back. “They said for you to take it easy. They said for you to avoid chasing down murderers. They said for you to stay home and let me look the fuck after you.”
“Ah, Joel.” She cocked her head. “You know they said none of those things.”
“This shit isn’t funny!” Reese thundered. “You can’t get sealed in a tomb! You can’t be kidnapped! What in the hell would I do if you died?” Stark. Ragged.
Chloe stared up at him as he loomed over her. He was so very different now from the stranger who’d come into her grandfather’s drawing room. “You would be fine,” she assured him.
He shook his head.
Chloe rose. Stood before him. Her hand pressed to his chest. “You would be fine,” she said again. “You were always stronger than you thought.”
His gaze searched hers. “Who is it? Who is coming after you?”
Silence. She looked around the room and found Joel and Marie watching her with hard stares, too. Joel knew this, but for the others, she said, “It is suspected that Morgan was at the cemetery.”
“I should have killed him when I had the chance!” Marie’s immediate explosion.
Chloe figured she should have done the same thing. “Before we kill him, I need to talk to Morgan.”
“Talk to him?” Marie began to pace. “Why would we waste time doing that?”
“Because Morgan wasn’t behind the bombs at the Serpent. Because he wasn’t the one who hurt Joel.” Her head throbbed but she plowed on. “He might have put me in that vault—”
“Uh, might?” Reese piped in.
Joel didn’t speak.
“If he did, he was trying to punish me.” That was what she figured. “He wanted me to face my nightmare.”
“Uh, but your nightmare isn’t being buried alive.” Reese jerked his thumb toward Joel. “I thought that was his particular nightmare of choice?”
“There was a…fresh body sealed inside with me.” She looked at the hand she still pressed to Reese’s chest. All of the blood had been removed from her fingers. “It made me quite aware of my own past.”
“Jesus.” His arms flew around her in a bear hug. “Why can’t you have a knitting hobby? Or why don’t you do gardening? Why do you have to be obsessed with killers? My heart can’t take this.”
Over his shoulder, Chloe met Joel’s unflinching stare. “In my defense,” she felt duty bound to add, “sometimes, I think killers are obsessed with me.”
Joel looked away.
Her breath caught. She hadn’t meant— “Joel?”
“I’m taking Chloe to bed. I want to make sure every bit of security is running at this place. If that dick Morgan is running around the Big Easy, I don’t want him stepping foot on this property.”
“Believe me, he won’t,” Marie promised him as she marched for the door.
Reese slowly eased away from Chloe. “What can I do?”
She’d asked him to leave over and over. He hadn’t. She knew he wouldn’t. “Stay on guard.”
A nod.
“This is one of those times,” the words just came from her, “when his life doesn’t look so good, does it?”
Reese inhaled. “A little danger wouldn’t make me turn away.”
It was hardly little.
“But, yes, I still think this life is good. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.” His knuckles brushed under her chin. “Why?”
She knew what he meant. It was a question that had come up many times with them in the past. Usually, she just shrugged it away. Chloe had never been overly comfortable with feelings. It was easier to just block them off.
But when she’d been sealed in the dark, she hadn’t exactly been able to do anything but feel.
“Because without you, I worried what I would become.” He had never gotten that. He thought he was the weak one. He wasn’t. He was the one who stood by her side. The one who’d sought help when he thought an addiction was taking over. The one who worked to protect her over and over again. “The idea of killing has always been abhorrent to you. Almost like something you can’t comprehend.”
His lips parted as if he’d speak.
Chloe plowed on. “You were good. At your core, I could see that goodness. And I thought that if I had someone like you in my life, I might become the same way.”
Reese squinted at her. “Chloe, did you hit your head again? What the hell are you talking about? You are good.”
Not exactly.
Her gaze slid to a watchful Joel. “If it’s all right with you, I’d prefer to sleep at your place.” She could use a glass ceiling and plenty of windows. The idea of being surrounded by thick walls didn’t exactly appeal to her.
He offered his hand to her. Chloe walked toward him. Took it.
And as always when she touched him, some of her fear slid away.
***
“Why would Morgan put you in the tomb?”
She had stripped, then put on one of Joel’s oversized shirts. It was soft and comfortable, and it smelled like him. “I like the way you smell.” She was in his bed. With his arm wrapped around her. “Warm and outdoorsy.”
“Chloe.”
“Your scent is far better than the coppery scent of blood.”